Homebrew PCBs

Thanks for the chemistry lesson. I think I'll give the sodium carbonate a
try if this checks out. As I recall from my homebrew photo developer days,
regular grocery-store "washing soda" (not baking soda) is sodium carbonate
(monohydrated). It's cheap and very easy to get! How well would this work?

Also, 200 degrees C is about 390F, so if all that outgases from heating the
remaining precipitate is CO2, is there any reason I couldn't use my kitchen
oven? Or . . . the toaster over I've dedicated for surface-mount reflow
soldering?

73,

Todd
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On Tue, Mar 12, 2013 at 10:32 AM, smilingcat90254
<smilingcat@...>wrote:

> **
>
>
> Easiest disposal of CuCl2 solution.
>
> Since you don't know how much HCl is left in the solution, the best thing
> to do is to use Sodium carbonate. It can be easily obtained from a pottery
> supply stores. Cheap. Ask a high school ceramic instructor on where to get
> it or ask any self respecting potter or ceramics artist. Cost is around
> $2-$4 per pound I think... You don't need much more than a pound for a very
> long time.
>
> Pour sodium carbonate crystals into your "spent" solution. Excess sodium
> carbonate is fine. CuCl2 will react and precipitate out as Copper
> carbonate. Filter it out using coffee filter. Liquid should be excess
> sodium carbonate, regular table salt and water.
>
> Dump the liquid down a drain.
>
> Dump the Copper carbonate precipitate into trash.
>
> If you really want to be safe!! You can reduce the copper carbonate in a
> furnace/kiln and heat the copper carbonate to around 200C. And it will turn
> black. You are decomposing the carbonate to release CO2 and what remains is
> Copper oxide. black powder. At this point its, very safe. But it can stain
> clothing.
>
> Dumping Copper chloride solution into a bucket of wood chips makes more
> toxic waste, so stop it!!
>
> Follow the directions on this post and all is well.
>
> BTW, same procedure works for Ferric Chloride etchant. If it is used on
> Ferric chloride solution, I would decompose the precipitate in a furnace.
> to create iron oxide, (rust).
>
>  
>


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